


Promise Forever

by Drag0nst0rm



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Discussion of pregnancy going wrong, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Pregnancy, Years of the Trees, but it doesn't, everything is fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23281477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drag0nst0rm/pseuds/Drag0nst0rm
Summary: Maitimo has some reservations about being a big brother.
Relationships: Fëanor | Curufinwë/Nerdanel, Maedhros | Maitimo & Nerdanel
Comments: 26
Kudos: 173
Collections: Feanorian Week 2020





	Promise Forever

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the Silmarillion.

Maitimo pinched the clay carefully, just like Mama told him to. He was perched on her lap so he could reach the table better, and her hands were layered over his, helping him push and pull the stiff clay. 

He wasn’t sure what they were making yet. Mama had said it was a special project, and that was good enough for him. He liked helping Mama, especially when she’d been so tired lately.

“There,” Mama whispered in his ear. “All done. Want to see?”

He nodded eagerly. Mama gently lifted it down from the table and placed it in his waiting hands.

“You’ll have to be careful with it until it dries,” she warned, but Maitimo already knew that. He wasn’t a _baby._

But the project, he realized suddenly, was. A little baby, all wrapped up in cloth.

“That won’t be the only baby around here soon,” Mama told him. “You’re going to have a little brother very soon now.”

Maitimo’s eyes widened.

Mama picked him up and turned him around on her lap so he could see her better. “See?” she said, patting her stomach. 

It was rounder than it used to be. He’d noticed when she gave him hugs, but he hadn’t thought about it. He hadn’t realized it meant - that it meant -

He burst into tears.

“Oh, no, sweetling, don’t cry. Don’t you want someone new to play with?” She cuddled him closer, and Maitimo clung to her dress.

“Not if it means you go away!”

She stroked his back. “I’m not going anywhere,” she said soothingly. “No one’s going to go away.”

“Atar’s mama did,” he sniffed accusingly.

Mama abruptly went still. “Who’s been telling you about that?”

Maitimo also went still. No one had been telling him directly about that. It wasn’t his fault if the grown-ups didn’t realize he was playing under the table while they talked, or if they thought he was asleep instead of standing outside the door, waiting to tell them about his nightmare.

Except maybe it was a little bit his fault, because he’d always been very quiet so he could keep listening instead of piping up to let them know he was there.

He decided the best thing to do was to wail again and bury his head in Mama’s shoulder so he didn’t have to answer.

She started rubbing his back again so that was alright. “Shh, shh, sweetling, it’s okay. I’m not going to go away like she did. I already had you, remember? And I’m still here now.”

“But what if this time is _different?”_

“It won’t be. Everything’s going exactly like it’s supposed to.”

“But everyone says she left because she was so tired, and now you’re tired all the time and don’t want to play - “

She wrapped her arms around him. “Oh, Maitimo. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to play with you as much. But that’s . . . that’s a different kind of tired than your Grandma Miriel. I’m just body-tired, like you are after you play with your friends, and that’s not dangerous at all. Grandma Miriel was spirit-tired, and that’s why she had to . . . had to go away for awhile.”

Maitimo sniffed a little but his tears started to slow. That might be alright then, he thought cautiously. Maybe. “You said _awhile,”_ he pointed out. “So she’s coming back?”

“That’s . . . complicated,” Mama said cautiously.

He thought about the things he’d overheard. “Because of Indis?”

“Queen Indis, Maitimo, and that’s a part of it, yes.”

A horrible thought started to form. “If something went wrong - “

“It won’t,” she said firmly.

“But if it _did,”_ he insisted. “If you did go away, you would come back, wouldn’t you?”

“I would,” she promised. “The very second I could.”

“But what if Atar got an Indis?” he pressed, the horrible thought finally taking full shape. “Could you still come back?”

There was a crashing sound from the doorway. He peered over Mama’s shoulder and saw Atar standing in the doorway. The tray of tools he’d been holding had crashed to the floor.

Mama winced a little, and she shifted a little in her seat to turn towards him. “Feanaro . . . “

Atar crossed the room in two huge strides and knelt in front of the chair. “Nothing’s going to go wrong,” he said intently. _“Nothing.”_

“But what if - “

Atar reached up and caught Maitimo’s wildly waving hands in his. “But if it did - and it won’t, but _if_ \- then I would wait for your mother until the end of the world.”

“Promise?” he said in a small voice.

“I swear it,” Atar said. He was looking at Mama when he said it, but that was alright, because he was still holding Maitimo’s hands, and it was a promise to Mama too. 

Mama leaned over and kissed Atar on the top of the head, which was fine, and then Atar leaned his head back and started kissing her on the lips, which was _icky,_ so Maitimo looked down at the little clay baby that was now rather precariously perched on Mama’s lap. 

He picked it up carefully and practiced holding it.

As long as Mama would be alright, maybe getting a new little brother wouldn’t be too bad after all.


End file.
